He drove out of the parking lot, back toward home. He’d lost control. He was supposed to be in control. Always. He shouldn’t dive in like that. He didn’t even know what she was. Something told him her magic wasn’t dangerous. But it was seductive. And familiar somehow.

She was even more intriguing than he’d imagined. She was a contradiction. She was bursting with so much magic that she couldn’t contain it, no matter how hard she tried. The air reverberated with it. And yet she didn’t use any of this magic. She fought with her sword and her body. She was putting herself in danger by not using her magic, but she got out of it, even without magic. She was amazing. And that mouth. So fierce, so fearless. She wasn’t afraid to tell anyone what she thought.

She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He’d felt that surely enough in the way she’d rubbed herself and her magic against him. If that light hadn’t turned on, they’d be having sex right now. She’d probably regret it afterward. She thought he would hurt her, betray her. He wouldn’t dream of it. Not Sera. Not ever.

Past that tough exterior she put up around herself, she was soft. Sweet. He could never turn against someone like that. She fought to support her brother but also to help people. She had a need to protect, to save. It was in her nature. Such a beautiful nature. She shot out a lot of snark, but there was truth in everything she said. In that way, she was so simple. And yet so complex. She was afraid he would hurt her. Well, she didn’t really know him at all then. But she would. He would show her that she could trust him.

* * *

From the sidelines, Kai watched Sera fight the Summoning Sisters. The illusion their fairy accompaniment had cast over the fighting pit shook. The Magic Games had been hard on Sera, but she was strong. She was a fighter. She was so scared of letting Duncan Blackbrooke, the Magic Games architect, break her magic. Kai should never have let her come here, but he’d been following the rules.

Screw the rules. Kai would protect her, whatever happened, even if that meant standing up to the Magic Council. During the Games, he’d come to realize that what he felt for Sera was in fact love. He was in love with her. She’d held out this long against everything Blackbrooke had thrown at her. She could hold out a little longer. She would be the first mage the Magic Games hadn’t cracked. And after this last match was over, he’d take her somewhere secluded, somewhere romantic, and then he would confess his love to her.

It was a good plan.

But then why did his heart stutter like that? He was Kai Drachenburg. Kai Drachenburg always knew what he wanted and he took it without hesitation.

Except with Sera, he wasn’t Kai Drachenburg. He was just Kai. Not his dynasty’s representative to the Magic Council, not the head of the world’s largest magical research company, not the hotshot mage people envied or feared—or both. He was Kai, the man who loved Sera, who’d been changed so totally by her that he couldn’t even imagine life without her.

As Sera’s opponents fell, the magic in the fighting pit shattered behind her, the cheering audience screaming her name as she strode out of the pit toward him, tired but smiling. She met Kai’s eyes, and he wondered if she felt the same way about him as he did about her. She’d shared his bed, but did she want to share more with him? Seeing the look of happiness in her eyes as they met his, Kai couldn’t help but hope.

But as she moved to leave the fighting pit, she just disappeared, swallowed up by magic. Kai ran out into the sandy arena, but the glyph was already gone. Sera was gone. She’d been taken from him, from right in front of his eyes. He stood in the pit and roared. The dragon magic in him screamed out, filling the stadium. The stands went silent, all eyes staring down at him. He could feel the fear in their magic.

Kai ran from the pit. Finn, his depraved cousin, had been stalking Sera, and now he had her.

Later, he learned that it wasn’t Finn who’d taken her but rather Alden. The ancient mage had tried to break her, to make her one of his. She never stopped fighting. She would not let that dark mage win, even if it killed her. She would stand against him to protect the ones she loved, no matter what happened to her. That made him love her even more, even as it pained him. He did not want her to throw herself between the world and the Grim Reaper. He wanted her to be safe, to live, to one day feel the same way about him as he did for her.

His suspicions solidified that day, things he’d been considering for weeks. Sera was Dragon Born. She’d been trying to tell him, but she couldn’t let it out. He didn’t know how to make her realize he would never turn against her. He loved her. She was not an abomination. She was the brightest beacon of pure intentions in his life. And he would do anything to protect her.

* * *

Later in Munich, in between the madness at the Summit, Kai went out. Sera was with her sister. He didn’t want to leave her, not with Alden after her, but the commandos were there in addition to Alex. And even the assassin. Slayer loved Alex too much to allow anything to happen to Sera.

Kai met his mother at a Magic Bean coffee shop. The inside of the shop was chic, more hip than old school. She looked out of place in her pearls, blouse, and pencil skirt. His mother was well over fifty, but she still had a young figure. She turned quite a few heads as she joined Kai at the fireside sofa, a steaming hot chocolate mug in her hand.

He stood, and they embraced with dignified warmth. She sat, a smirk on her lips as she watched Kai over her mug.

Kai had stood up to countless powerful supernaturals in his time without faltering, but the look his mother was giving him right now made him want to squirm. He didn’t, of course. Drachenburgs didn’t squirm. But his skin was itching from the strain of being still. That only made her smirk grow wider. She reached into her purse and pulled out a jewelry box, setting it down on the table.